Woman Falsely Claims She Was Sexually Assaulted Because Man Refused to Drive Her Home: Police

A New York woman has been charged with making a false report of a crime after claiming she was sexually assaulted, police said. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said she was angry the man didn’t give her a ride home.

Jessica R. Gallagher, 27, of Clyde, New York, was charged with falsely reporting an incident, according to the sheriff’s office, the Democrat and Chronicle reported on Tuesday. She told officials that she was picked up by a man on a dating app, was blindfolded, was forced into a residence, and was later raped.

Deputies say 27-year-old Jessica Gallagher, of Clyde, told them she was picked up by a man she met on a dating app, blindfolded, and raped. https://t.co/sfdpGz73s8

Investigators said that she later told them that she fabricated the encounter because she was angry that he didn’t give her a ride.

She was arraigned in Galen Town Court and was taken to a Wayne County Jail on $1,500 bond. She’s slated to appear in court later this month.

The man she accused of rape was not named in local media reports. His portion of the story is not known.

It comes several weeks after a student at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut pleaded guilty to falsely accusing two football players of rape. Nikki Yovino said she made up the accusation because she was trying to garner sympathy from another student, according to the Connecticut Post. And nearly four years ago, a story published by Rolling Stone magazine was later retracted after lawyers for Jackie Coakley, a University of Virginia student, said she faked an account saying she was gang-raped as a freshman. Coakley wasn’t punished by the university and didn’t file a police report.

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The National Sexual Violence Resource Center said that “a review of research finds that the prevalence of false reporting [of rapes] is between 2 percent and 10 percent.”

“Research shows that rates of false reporting are frequently inflated, in part because of inconsistent definitions and protocols, or a weak understanding of sexual assault. Misconceptions about false reporting rates have direct, negative consequences and can contribute to why many victims don’t report sexual assaults,” the organization concluded in its report.

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